“…Abused women are also hindered by misconceptions and inaccurate understandings of the nature and dynamics of domestic abuse, with women often asked why they did not just leave the relationship (Douglas et al, 2020;Hopkins et al, 2018;Mechanic, 2023;Tarrant et al, 2019;Tyson et al, 2017). While expert evidence on battered woman syndrome (BWS) was originally introduced as a defense strategy in Australia, Canada, and the United States to help explain why a woman's resort to lethal violence may have been reasonable in the context of abuse, it has been extensively criticized for portraying their actions as the result of an individual deficit or pathology rather than a rational and reasonable response to serious domestic violence (Bradfield, 2002;Schneider, 2000;Stubbs & Tolmie, 1999).…”